


When Trouble Comes Knocking

by jacksparrow589



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt, Gen, Jerry and Anne are basically siblings and you can't tell me otherwise, Jerry is the best brother, Protective Jerry, Remorseful Gilbert, a bit of comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-06 05:31:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21221381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacksparrow589/pseuds/jacksparrow589
Summary: Post 3x06. Jerry finds Anne being sad, and does the two best things he can: be a listening ear, and cover for her when Gilbert shows up.





	When Trouble Comes Knocking

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, where there is French, there is a significant chance it is incorrect. If you notice mistakes, point them out!

Jerry wasn’t surprised to find Anne in the barn with Belle and her foal. He was, however, surprised to see her crying.

“Anne?”

Her head darted up. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and her cheeks blotchy. “Jerry!” Her voice was thin and raspy. He knew the look. He’d seen it in his sisters’ eyes once or twice, and Anne was like a sister to him now. She was hurt, and there probably wasn’t anything he could do, but he did have one thing he could offer: a listening ear.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked, passing the broom handle he held back and forth between his hands.

“No,” Anne said quietly.

“_B__i__en_.” Jerry began first whistling, then singing softly to himself as he cleaned the barn. After several minutes, he could hear Anne speak, but he kept singing, hoping she’d reveal the cause of her sorrow.

“I was a fool,” she lamented. “I really thought… I thought that he was the one, that that fortune teller was right. I wanted to believe so badly! But of course, Gilbert could never feel that way about me… not when he has the attentions of an amazingly beautiful, sophisticated woman like Miss Rose...” She rubbed Belle’s nose as the mare nuzzled into Anne’s hair, and her foal into Anne’s skirt. Anne let out a sobbing laugh. “All I’ll have is that dance.”

Jerry wasn’t sure what made him look out the barn door, but he was glad he did. “Anne!” he hissed. “Get down! Hide!”

Anne gazed around frantically, looking for the source of Jerry’s distress, but she heard rather than saw as Gilbert Blythe walked toward the barn, calling her name. Anne slid into Belle’s stall and crouched in the corner farthest from the entrance to the barn as Jerry headed to the entrance.

“Jerry. Good afternoon.” Gilbert’s voice had stopped just at the door. Anne didn’t dare peek, and prayed Belle and her foal would continue to hide her.

“_Bonjour,_ Gilbert.” Jerry sounded oddly frosty.

“...Have you seen Anne anywhere? I came to talk to her about… about school. Miss Cuthbert said she thought Anne might be in the barn with the new foal?”

Anne bit down on her lip to keep from wailing in frustration. Surely Marilla had noticed the change in Anne’s demeanor! And after the scene Anne had made running away at the county fair, there was no way she couldn’t know why!

“Miss Cuthbert must have been mistaken. I haven’t seen her, and I’ve been in here cleaning the last quarter hour. No Anne.” Anne could hear the shifts in Jerry’s clothing as he gestured around. How he was able to lie so casually, she’d never know, and only slightly less mysterious was _why_.

“Ah...” Gilbert sounded… embarrassed? Disappointed? Anne couldn’t tell. “Well, while I’m here, may I see the foal?”

There was a stomping sound as Jerry surely stepped into Gilbert’s path. “Ah, no; I still need to muck out the stall today.” A second lie.

Gilbert chuckled. “I’ve smelled worse, Jerry. I worked on a steamship.”

“I only meant that I’d like to get done early. My little sister’s birthday is today, and I’d like to be home soon to celebrate.” A third lie: Jerry’s little sister had been born in the dead of winter!

“Oh. Well, I won’t keep you, then, but if you see Anne…” Gilbert was dithering uncharacteristically. “...tell her I’d like to—that I was looking for her?”

Anne was able just spy Jerry shrugging noncommittally. “_Bien. Au revoir._”

It was a tense couple of minutes before Jerry crept out of the barn, then walked back in. “Coast is clear. He’s back on his way.” Jerry helped Anne back over the gate before starting to clean again. “I did say I’d tell you that he’d _‘like to—that Gilbert was looking for you’_—I believe those were the words.” Though he'd repeated them with a bit of a sneer, Jerry knew he was being a bit unkind. Gilbert had seemed sincere in his intention, whatever that was, and Jerry couldn't believe it would be to deliberately hurt Anne, but he'd already done enough for the moment as far as Jerry was concerned.

Anne nodded mutely. Gilbert was nowhere near as good a liar as Anne or Jerry, generally preferring directness, at least when he was the one instigating. _What could he possibly want with me_, Anne wondered.

“Thank you, Jerry,” she told him, quiet but utterly sincere.

“_De rien._” Jerry stopped and looked up. “You know he’s not worth your tears, right?”

Anne let out another choked laugh. “I don’t know whether I want more for you to be right or wrong about that.” She flung her arms around Jerry and let out another muffled sob. Jerry sighed and patted Anne’s back and murmured something soothing in French that Anne chose to believe was “You’ll be alright. You’ll come through this alright.”

She released him after a moment. “Sorry. I’ll leave you to your work now.” She turned to walk out of the barn.

“Anne?”

“Hmm?” She looked over her shoulder at Jerry.

“Anytime. Come find me if he comes back and you don’t want to talk.” Sweet, lovable Jerry was managing to look just a little menacing, even with concern for Anne softening his face. It warmed Anne’s heart.

“I think… next time… I’ll be able to face him.”

Jerry shrugged one of his shoulders. “_Ben_, the offer stands. You know where to find me. Or at least a pitchfork.” He smiled as Anne laughed. “Feel better, okay?”

Anne nodded, a genuine smile wide on her face now as she turned and walked back inside.

**Author's Note:**

> So, at first, Anne was going to spy on the conversation out a window, and then Gilbert was going to catch just a momentary glimpse he'd shake off as his imagination, and then Anne was going to not be hidden well enough (while Jerry is blatantly lying, but confidently). I figured I'd give the poor girl a break and let her actually hide, though.
> 
> That decision was due in part to my wanting this to at least have some possibility of fitting into canon, so I'm trying not to make a decision on what exactly Gilbert was going to say, but he was going to try to mend things somehow. He had honest intentions, as he usually does. He's just no match for a brotherly Jerry.


End file.
